It
is important that as believers we understand that we have a relationship with
the father. God is our Father and we are his children. Many believers have not come to understand
that they have a part to play in their relationship with the father. The average
or sometimes so called excellent believers don’t even understand that they have
a responsibility toward God.
In
every relationship, for it to be a success there has to be give and take. No
relationship is ever one sided, It is always a two sided affair. In this
relationship you have your part to play the other person has his own part to
play. The bible tells us two cannot work together except they are in
agreement. They need to be in agreement
before a relationship can function. Without this it would not be all that it is
supposed to be.
When
you get involved in a relationship you lose the right to act how you want to
act or just do anything you want to do because you are in a relationship. Some
relationships involve more than two people, it could involve 3 or 4 or more
people as can be seen in a business relationship. In a business relationship
you can’t just act as though you were the only one. When spending money you
have to take into account that there are others to consider you have got to be
accountable. Also before you got married
there are things that you would have done freely that once you are married you
can no longer do. If you are not ready
to do these things, the relationship will never function optimally as it ought
to. And it would actually be better if you left the relationship that to try
and take advantage of your partners.
The
same thing when we come into a relationship with the father, we lose the right
to do anything we want and act anyhow we like.
As in every relationship as I said earlier on is a two way thing, so
just as God the father has a responsibility towards us so do we have a
responsibility to him. The problem is
not many believers have understood their parts towards God. Most times the
teaching is geared towards Gods responsibility towards us but many times we do
not realize that God himself also has needs the same way we have needs. And
nobody else can meet his needs other than us and his part towards us no one
else can also meet.
Let’s
take the situation of we as humans who give birth to children and all the
children do is ask and ask and take and take and do not want to do anything in
return. They do not want to participate in doing any house chores; you send
them on errands they don’t go. All their focus is on what they can get from
you. Will that relationship work?? NO SIR. We would consider these children as
wayward and irresponsible. This is the same exact situation with God when all
we do is ask and ask and do not play our own parts in attending to his needs. We
are seen as wayward and irresponsible children.
CAST YOUR CARES UPON THE LORD
The
average believers prayer life is mostly about himself or herself same with
their thought life. One thing that stands as a barrier to our winning souls is
our problems, needs, issues e.t.c. and we are constantly concerned about them.
This is not bad but are legitimate i.e. concern about finances, about our house
rent these are all legitimate needs. If we don’t think about these things in
the eyes of man he seems totally irrational.
The
bible says in 1 Pet 5:7 – Cast you care upon Him, for He cares for you. Ours is
to learn to cast our cares on God and not to carry the cares. As long as we are
thinking about these things there is no way we would be able to focus on soul
winning. There is no way we can evangelize, there is no way we can think of others
when we are weighed down by our own problems.
So what are we to do? We are to learn to roll our problems unto God. We
are to learn to do what Jesus told us in Matthew 6:25-26 it might sound so
ridiculous to the mind of men, it might sound like utter and total
irresponsibility but the word says –
“Therefore
I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will
drink; nor about your body, what you will but on. Is not life more than food
and the body more than clothing 26. “Look at the birds of the air, for they
neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet you heavenly father feeds them.
Are you not of more value than they?
What
a statement! This clearly tells us not to bother about our lives because it is
in his hands. He says if he can cater for the birds who play not part in ensuring
their survival how much more us his children.
With regards to our trust in the lord to provide our sustenance in
abundance we should be like children. No child wakes up in the morning and
wonders what he would eat or what he would wear. He knows he would eat, he
knows he would have clothes to wear; he knows whatever he need s would be
provided for him by his father. Same it should be with us we need not worry
about anything because the lord has clearly told us to cast our cares on him
and not to worry about him. And we are well aware that that by two immutable
things God cannot lie and so his word is enough for us.
So
focusing on our worries is a needless thing. This reminds me of a story:
Two men took their
boats out to sea to fish. After a very good catch, they rowed their two boats
back toward the shore, only to discover that while they were fishing the tide
had gone out, leaving their cars quite a distance from the water. For those of
us that have lived in riverine areas we would remember that usually as the day
goes by the water recedes or goes back and returns later in the day. That is
what is meant by the tide going out.
The first man decided
to wait for the tide to turn and started cleaning his fish. However, the second
man became very frustrated because he had many things to do and didn’t have
time to wait for the tide. So he jumped out of his boat and started dragging it
over the long stretch of beach. It was exhausting. His boat was very heavy and
laden with fish, but being a stubborn man he was not easily deterred.
It soon became clear
he was getting nowhere fast, so he decided to lighten his load. He threw out
his oars, lines, nets and all the fish, then kept dragging. Step by agonizing
step he advanced. Every few metres his boat caught in the sand or wedged on a
rock. In anger, he lifted it free then heaved it further up the beach. Ever so
slowly he advanced closer to his car. Finally, with the last of his strength,
he dragged his boat to the top of the beach. He laughed in exhilaration and
shook his fist defiantly at heaven.
Then, to his complete surprise, he noticed the
tide had come in behind him. He watched, speechless, as the other man rowed his
boat effortlessly to his car, placed his oars, nets and cleaned fish into the
boot, then lifted his boat on top and drove away. The second man fell down
exhausted - he did not have the strength left to lift his boat.
God has told us there
is a time for everything, when delayed, we should be patient. If we trust in
God, He will turn the tide at exactly the right time. All our stubborn efforts,
worries and fears are just a waste of energy and will leave us frustrated,
discouraged and exhausted.
We
are to cast our cares upon the lord. Especially now when most of our ISAACS
have been placed on the alter. We should
not worry about it. Our man of God has spoken in length about this so I
wouldn’t go into this. But what we need to take away is that if God can cater
for the birds of the air how much more us. We know his word never lies so we
should quit focussing on our issues and problems and roll them unto God.
MEETING GOD’S NEEDS – OUR REASON FOR EXISTENCE
Now
that we know it is fruitless to worry about our problems what then should our
primary focus in life be? What should we focus on? We should focus on
fulfilling God’s need.
Just
as God is the only ones that can satisfy our needs we are the only one that can
satisfy his needs. And what are his needs that we are the only ones who can meet
- SOUL WINNING. Angels cannot win souls for God we are the only ones who can do
this.
So
he is utterly dependent on you and me to do it. This is our part in our
relationship with him.
Matthew
Chapter 28:18-19 – And Jesus came and spoke to them saying, all authority has
been given to me in heaven and on earth 19. Go therefore and make disciples of
all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the son and of
the Holy Spirit, Teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you;
and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Amen.
So
here we are given the great commission to go and make disciples of all nations.
This is the great need in the heart of the father which not God nor angels can
meet. So he gives us the authority of his name to go and make disciples of all
nations. Then he says you are not going alone am with you and I would be with
you till the end of age. We need to understand that that’s the reason we were
left here on earth to win souls for him.
If
all he wanted was for us to be saved why then didn’t we die or why then weren’t
we taken to heaven the moment we gave our lives to Christ because as we have
learnt that is the only prerequisite for making it into heaven. But no he left
us here for one purpose and one purpose alone which is this great commission of
making disciples of all nations which we only can do. Do you know that angels
cannot win souls to Christ? They don’t have the authority to preach, they don’t
have the commission to do so. Another reason is Jesus Said I am the shepherd
and you are the sheep. A sheep can only give birth to sheep, an angel can only
give birth or raise forth other angels and we are the only ones that can
produce more souls for God. The bible
tells us that now are we the sons of God.
Angels are not the sons of God, they are not born again believer so
cannot produce other born again believers as we can and so preaching the gospel and getting more
children to God is only the prerogative of the sons of God.
Let’s
look at Ephesians 4:11 –12
11 And he
gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some,
pastors and teachers;
12 For the
perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the
body of Christ:
Why were we given this people? To perfect us for the work of the ministry.
We need to understand that we all have a ministry which is the edifying of the
body of the Christ. Edifying refers to establishing or building up. And we are
told edifying the body of Christ. For those of us that remember from foundation
school what the body of Christ is we would understand that the body of Christ
refers to all believers worldwide. We by edifying it means to build up to
increase or establish the number of believers all around the world. The pastor’s work is to equip us to carry out
this task and our sole purpose is to ensure we win souls and edify the body of Christ.
And God knew ordinarily we won’t be able
to do it. So God decided to give us these gifts of pastors, teachers, and
apostles, evangelists to perfect us and equip us to enable us to carry out the
sole reason why we are on this earth.
So to clarify further on this ministry we
have been called to. Let’s turn to 2 Corinthians 5:17 – 19
17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature:
old things are passed away; behold all things are become new.
18 And all
things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath
given to us the ministry of reconciliation;
19 To wit,
that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their
trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.
The ministry Paul was referring to in
Ephesians 4 has been made clear to us here. He is referring to the ministry of
reconciliation. To reconcile men back to
God, to bring men back to God. We call it soul winning.
LET’S DEFINE SOUL
WINNING – it
is defined as the art evangelising and discipling souls. Why art? Because an
art is something you get better at doing the more you do it. It is a learned
skill that is improved with practice. No one goes out the first time and is
perfect at soul winning. It is not a
science which is precise and something that is perfected before it is
done. It like preaching, singing etc.
those are arts. Things you get better as you do it.
2 Corinth 5:19 - We were given the ministry
in verse 18 and in verse 19 we were given the word to be used to reconcile. It’s
not everything that is preached that is a word of reconciliation. There is a
particular word of reconciliation and we have been told what it is. NO LONGER INPUTING THEIR TRESPASSES AGAINST
THEM BUT HAS COMMITED TO US THE WORD OF RECONCILLIATION.
Wow this clearly tells us that people do not
go to hell for their actions, they don’t go to hell because they stole, or
because they fornicated or because they sinned, No sir. They go to hell because
they do not receive Jesus Christ as their lord and saviour. This is the word of
reconciliation. It says no longer imputing their trespasses against them. What are these trespasses? Their sinful acts.
So the word of reconciliation is getting people to become born again not going
to tell them this thing you are doing is not good. That is not the message of
soul winning that is not the message of reconciliation. Is that what he is asking us to go and tell
people – YES. What we should be telling
people is that all these things you have done God would not hold it against you
which would beg the question how come then you answer by providing them the
word of salvation, the word of reconciliation that whoever gives his life to
Christ is a new creature old things are passed away and behold all things have
become new.
Soul
winning involves two things: Evangelism and discipleship.
Evangelism
is the act of communicating the gospel to an unsaved. Remember Jesus did not
say go an evangelize the nations. He said go and make disciples. The first step
is discipleship. Evangelism is just
telling them and not helping them to grow not discipling them.
A
disciple is a “taught one” He is not just an “evangelized ones” but a “taught one” That means one who has
been taught or schooled in the ways of
another. Though winning souls to Christ is the
essence of evangelism it is still just half the task because without proper
discipleship without properly schooling him in the ways of the lord we are in
essence committing spiritual abortion or infantile death.
A
soul that is newly won as we know is like a new born babe who has just been
conceived and without adequate nurturing and nourishment which for a fresh born
again Christian is the word of God he/she is bound to die either just after
conception (abortion) or while he is still a spiritual babe (infantile
spiritual death). As a human child is
born into the world into a family whose duty it is to ensure the child grows
the right way so is it our duty to ensure those that are won to Christ in our
ministry either directly by us or indirectly are catered for in the right
manner to ensure they grow properly spiritually. We must never ever win a soul and abandon him
because we would account for the loss on the judgment day.
CONCLUSION
Now
we know the following:
- · That we are in a relationship with God and it is not one sided and that we have to attend to the needs of God.
- · We have identified the need of God as Soul winning and have determined the word of reconciliation
- · We have also noted that it is not enough to just evangelize we also have to make sure we disciple then.
Jesus
said we should go and preach the gospel to all nations. We learnt that the word
nation mean ethnic; those around us as in ethnic group i.e. people you have
something in common on with not tribe like it is used to describe today. If you are an engineer you have something in
common with other engineers, if you are a doctor you have something in common
with other doctors. If you are a business man you have something in common with
other business men and so on and so forth.
So
we have a commission to preach to those in our offices and those in the same
vocation as we because wherever we see ourselves is not by coincidence. So in
this month of May go out and win souls in your nation (your ethnic group) and
make sure you try to drag them to church
Let’s
remember what the lord said in Matthew 28:19 which say - 19. Go therefore and
make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and
of the son and of the Holy Spirit, Teaching them to observe all things that I
have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the
age. Amen
